The invention relates to a fastening device used to fasten small objects, such as pedometers, altimeters or receivers, to articles of clothing. The clothes carriers are, for example gloves or portions of the sleeves of other articles of clothing, or bands on which the small objects are used for a time and from which they are then removed again afterward.
In various kinds of sports and occupations, it is desirable or necessary not to wear such objects, especially watches, in the usual way on a band against the skin, and thus under the clothing. For instance, if one wears gloves to protect against the cold in winter sports, or to avoid injuries to the skin while horseback riding or playing golf, then it is complicated to take off the glove every time or push it away from the wrist if one wants to look at his watch. This is even more the case if one wears a watch or receiver that has an acoustical signal device, since one usually wants to turn off the signals being given as quickly as possible. In medical professions or in activities where one puts his hands into contact with water or chemicals as well, it is preferable not to wear a watch on the wrist, either to protect patients against injuries or to protect the watch from damage. In those cases it is more practical to wear a watch on the lower arm region of the sleeve than to use a pocket watch or pendant watch, since to read a pocket watch or pendant watch one always needs a free hand, while a watch fixed to the sleeve can be read even if no free hand is available.
In every case, it is necessary that the fastening devices for such objects permit detachable fastening without destruction in a simple way. On the one hand, objects have to be removed in order to be set, adjusted or repaired, and in order to replace exhausted batteries, and objects that have become unusable must also be replaced with new ones. On the other, it must also be possible to remove objects from articles of clothing if the clothing becomes defective or dirty. Finally, it is desirable to secure an object to various kinds of carriers, and thus for instance in winter sports to use a watch on a glove while in everyday use it is used on a watchband.
2. Prior Art
Fastening devices for such purposes are known. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,653 describes a sports glove on which, alternatively and sometimes even simultaneously, various objects such as watches, small pockets or radios can be fastened using Velcro tape. The thus-fastened objects can easily be removed and fastened to other large-area or bandlike carriers. However, the danger always exists that objects secured in this way can be damaged, since they are not protected at the sides in any way but rather protrude above the glove all the way around. Moreover, they can easily be detached from the glove from shear or torsional forces that act upon them in a fall, for instance.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,835 also describes a glove onto whose back, again using Velcro tape, one face of a two-faced small case is secured. A watch or some other relatively flat object is placed between the two faces of the case. Reading the watch is done through recesses on the outer face, which is pressed against the inner face or on the back of the glove by means of a tab and tape device. Although this fastening device provides relatively good protection for a very flat object, once again the danger exists that the Velcro fastening will come undone.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,521 shows a glove with a small pocket that extends on the back of the hand into the inside of the glove and can be closed by a zipper, for instance. An object is thrust into this small pocket, and it can be read through suitable recesses in the material of the glove in the region of the back of the hand, which may be covered with transparent film. In this arrangement, the object is well protected both against damage and against loss, but this arrangement is poorly suited for securing an object to a bandlike carrier that is not overly wide.
International Patent Application WO 93/08 709 shows and describes a glove on whose back a fastening element of the carrier is mounted, while a fastening element of the object that cooperates with the other fastening element is mounted on various objects, such as a stop watch, a "windshield" wiper for ski goggles, and similar small objects. The two fastening elements are connected to one another by being pushed or rotated. With this glove, the objects are relatively securely fastened but hardly protected, since there is no provision for disposing them in recessed fashion. Another disadvantage is that when a watch, for instance, is removed from it and mounted on a watchband, the result is a watchband of considerable height, since both fastening elements have a certain thickness or height.
In summary, it can be stated that all the fastening devices described allow moving an object from a first carrier and mounting it on another carrier. However, in some of the fastening devices, the objects are virtually unprotected and/or are not fastened adequately securely. In particular, in all the fastening devices it is not possible to both securely fasten and adequately protect the objects perfectly both on a relatively large-area carrier and on a bandlike carrier.
The novel fastening device makes it possible to mount an object such as a watch securely and in a protected fashion on the one hand to a relatively large-area carrier, such as a glove or the sleeve of a lab coat, and on the other to do so on a narrow bandlike carrier, such as a watchband. This is accomplished by two cooperating fastening elements to be connected to one another in disconnectable fashion; one fastening element of the object comes into engagement with one element of the carrier or band in each case.
In a simple, practical embodiment, the object is especially well protected, because the fastening element of the carrier has a cylindrical container for receiving the object, and the depth of the container is at least approximately equivalent to the height of the case or housing of the object. In addition, the case has a protective cap with an opening, through which at least the display area of the object is visible, and which above all protects the vulnerable upper peripheral region of the case.
In another embodiment, the force of a resilient element is utilized in order to firmly hold the object on the carrier or band in a suitable receiving device.
This kind of fastening device is obtained by forming the fastening element of the object as a shoulder on the case, while the fastening element of the carrier or band has at least one elastic clamp element, with an operative surface area that rests on the aforementioned shoulder when the object is secured. For mounting and unmounting the object, the elastic clamp element is deflected into a position in which it enables the object to be inserted or removed from the receiving device.
In a preferred embodiment, the shoulder is formed by the upper rim of the case. The element of the carrier forms a container like receiving device for the object and at the same time forms a plurality of clamp elements, in that the vertical container wall, which is made of an elastic material, has vertical slits that begin at its upper rim and that laterally define the clamp elements, which comprise the remaining parts of the walls.
In both of the above-mentioned embodiments of the novel fastening device, the assumption was that the object has only a single fastening element of the object, which cooperates alternatively with a complementary fastening device of a large-area or bandlike carrier; the fastening elements of both types of carrier are in principle embodied identically. To connect the object especially advantageously to a bandlike carrier, which is especially desirable for a watch, the object may be provided with an additional fastening element toward the object, which is secured to the further fastening element toward the band. In this case, the fastening element toward the carrier and that toward the band are embodied differently.
For instance, the object, retained in a spring ring and formed onto its case, may have half of a bayonet mount, whose complementary half is mounted on a bandlike carrier.
Alternatively, the additional fastening element on the object, which serves to secure the object to a bandlike carrier, may essentially comprise two diametrically opposed attachments, which protrude radially past the case and extend at a tangent to the case. When the object is secured to the large-area carrier, these attachments are not needed. In this case, the aforementioned arrangement in which a container like receiving device is provided for the object, its walls being divided by slits into resilient clamp elements, is advantageously used as the fastening element of the carrier.
The attachments that serve the purpose of fastening to the bandlike carrier are received by the aforementioned slits when the object is secured to the large-area carrier. By a suitable distribution of slits over the circumference of the container like receiving device, the correct disposition of the object in the circumferential direction is moreover assured. When the object is disposed on the bandlike carrier, the attachments, which have bores extending longitudinally of them, are connected to complementary fastening elements of the band, generally by means of pins that are supported on the bores and protrude beyond them into aligned recesses of the securing elements of the band.
It is even more advantageous to provide not two attachments but rather two pairs of attachments on the case; the bandlike carrier is thrust in between the attachments of one pair, so that a typical watchband fastening is the result. In this case, it is necessary that the slits, which must receive the four attachments of the two pairs of attachments when the object is secured to the large-area carrier, be disposed not radially but rather in the direction of the various attachments.
A very secure fastening is obtained if the fastening element of the object on the one hand and the fastening element of the carrier or band on the other are embodied or disposed such that they can be made to engage one another in the manner of a bayonet mount. In this way, a correct disposition of the object in the circumferential direction is simultaneously obtained, without having to provide additional positioning devices for the purpose.
An advantageous embodiment of the bayonet mount-like fastening elements is embodied such that the element of the object is formed onto the bottom of the case via a spacer protuberance and has two radially outward-protruding attachments. The fastening element of the carrier or band is embodied as a ring and mounted on the carrier or band in such a way that a free space is created between the carrier or band and the ring.
The ring has radial recesses, beginning at its inner rim, that are embodied in complementary fashion to the attachments. One attachment or recess has a larger size radially and a smaller size circumferentially than the other attachment or recess. This assures that the object cannot ever be secured to the carrier in the wrong position.